NORTHFIELD SCHOOL AND SPORTS COLLEGE

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER

Last term was a very difficult one for Northfield School, as we lost one of our Year Seven students. Matthew Olley played rugby for Billingham, swam for Billingham Forum club, was Head Boy at his primary school, Wolviston, and was a very promising Year 7 boy with a big circle of friends and great character. The keen Sunderland AFC fan had a wonderful time at Northfield, and had a real impact on all staff and students who knew him.Matthew fought cancer for eight months and underwent very intensive treatment, but sadly on the 4th November 2011 he lost his fight with the illness. Mr Walker was asked by Matthew’s parents to speak at his funeral, where he remembered the last time he had seen Matthew. He told the congregation that Matthew had shocked him and made him laugh when he fired the jet-propelled car he’d spent hours building in the school hall. Not only did Matthew’s car accelerate at an incredible speed, but it came to an abrupt halt when it crashed off the huge metal face sculpture above the steps. More precisely, right in the left nostril!! Matthew won a Brave Heart award for his outstanding courage and was invited to pick up the honour in a glitzy ceremony, ironically at St James’ Park, home of his beloved SAFC rivals Newcastle United!Matthew’s parents are hoping to raise funds for the Children’s Butterwick Hospice and Clic Sargent, two charities that supported Matthew and his family during his illness. If any parents or students have fundraising ideas we’d love to hear them. Please contact Mrs Carey, at vcarey@northfield.stockton.sch.uk

In Memory of Matthew Olley

Northfield’s Year 8 Debating Team have talked their way into a prestigious debate in the House of Lords in March! The team, led by Miss Watton and Mrs Jones, have been selected to participate in a Student Parliament discussion, alongside three other schools from across the country. This is a fantastic achievement, considering the team has only been meeting since September! No doubt once the students get the taste for it, we’ll have some budding politicians on our hands...

Congratulations to all students and staff involved! Watch this space for a full report on the event in our Easter newsletter.For further information about Student Parliament and other educational resources linked to politics, go to http://www.parliament.uk/education/visiting-parliament/student-parliament/

MOMENTOUS MATHS RESIT RESULTS

The Maths department are currently celebrating a fantastic set of results from the Year 11 November resits. The results for those students who re-sat one of their Unit exams, came out in January and they were extremely impressive. Out of 89 Year 11 students who took the exam, 78 achieved a higher points score towards their final GCSE grade! This was down to the huge efforts of staff and students, who worked hard for months in morning form time maths sessions and in after school intensive learning classes. In addition to this, extra classes were timetabled during the day in the two weeks prior to the exam.Nearly all students were over the moon with their success and the Maths department hope they can go onto gain their full potential in this important subject. The following students have been selected for a special mention:Lauren Harrington, Lewis Ellis, Emily Richardson, Rachael Hall, Alexia Yiannouli, Michael Young, Blake Parsons, Ellie Crussell, Carly Trainer, Marcus Blakelock, Kayleigh Fraser, Jack Archer, Kayleigh Martin, Paige Wardle and Holly Brown.Many students achieved maximum points on the exam and some achieved 20 points more than they had previously attained. This has pushed some students current grades from an E to a C! There is one further resit exam in March for some students and extra classes have already started. We hope they can produce a similar set of results! Well done to the Year 11 students who took the November exam and good luck to those taking

their exam in March.

MATHS

CITIZENSHIP

I T ʼ S FINALLY H E R E !

N o r t h fi e l d Schoolʼs spectacular

production of ʻLittle Shop of Horrorsʼ will be wending its way to our Thames Road stage from the 7th to the 10th of February. The showʼs stars, from both sites, have worked solidly for weeks, attending after-school and weekend rehearsals in order to ensure that each performance will be a night not to be missed!

The play follows the story of clumsy floristʼs assistant Seymour (played by Emily Gill) and his quest to find love with his fellow work mate Audrey (performed on different nights by Ebony Birmingham and Leah Jones). Will the man eating plant Seymour has been nurturing in the shop prove to be his saviour or his downfall?

Miss Rabbetts, Miss Dickenson and Mr Auton are all extremely proud of the tremendous commitment displayed by the cast and advise you all to get tickets soon, as each performance is likely to sell out quickly.

Mr Birch and Mrs Wilson from the Art Department would also like to offer a huge thank you to Miss Orley, our display assistant, who, along with a small group of students, has worked so hard to produce the fantastic set for the show! They have all been involved in designing and painting scenery, props, posters and miniature plants,

which will accompany the ten foot carnivorous plant puppet that the school has hired for the event!

Tickets are £5 (£2 for concessions) and are available from the school office.

Our Year 9 students are spearheading an attempt for a Guinness World Record and are currently collecting small bottle tops. They are hoping to break the record for the highest number of small bottle tops in a continuous line and are currently waiting for verification from Guinness World Records to confirm the attempt.

Four local pubs in Billingham have agreed to lend their support, so it is hoped that the current total of 2000 bottle tops will sky rocket before the record is actually attempted at either Easter or June half term. Year 9 tutor groups are running an in-house contest to see which one can collect the most and as always competition is fierce, with all tutor groups desperately trying to prove that they are the most committed to ‘the cause’.

The Year 9 Guidance Team would like to thank everyone who is helping with the bottle top collections, not least Mrs Wardle from Oakdene School who recently sent the team a whole bag full. There are collection boxes at various points around both sites and in the Sportsdrome, so any contributions from the local community would be greatly appreciated. Further updates on the progress of the World Record bid will be published in our next newsletter.

Our students have yet again, demonstrated their generosity and selfless attitudes by donating a very large amount of money to two children’s charities. Anti-Bullying Week, held in November, allowed students to participate in a range of activities to raise awareness of how to prevent bullying in schools. Students were encouraged to support the Children’s Society and Children in Need, by making a small donation in return for being allowed to wear an item of blue clothing on Blue Day. The tremendous total of £900 was raised and is being divided amongst the two charities. Mrs Lucas, who organised the event, was very proud of the contributions made by the students and is already planning this November’s Anti-Bullying Week, which should see Northfield being involved on a global scale!

Charity

work

As we mentioned in our last newsletter, the Stockton Book of the Year Award is in its fourteenth year and our Year 7 reading groups at our Thames Road and Marsh House sites are working hard to choose a worthy winner from the interesting short list of books! Stockton Book of the Year involves children, teachers, parents, authors and library staff in the promotion and celebration of first-class, modern children's literature and, ultimately, reading for pleasure. The two reading groups will get together in March to discuss and vote for their favourite book from the list and the winning selection will be put forward as Northfield Schoolʼs choice for the Book of the Year Award. (For more information about the Stockton Book of the Year, go to www.stockton.gov.uk )

#  All 5 titles have been very popular and it is going to be a hard decision in March when the 2 groups will get together to discuss and  vote for their favourites. The winning book  will go forward as Northfield Schoolʼs choice for the Book of the Year Award.

The books are:- • ʻGravenhungerʼ - a spooky and

s a d s t o r y a b o u t a n o l d abandoned house.

• ʻMuncle Troggʼ -   the story of the smallest giant in the world.

• ʻRun, Rabbit Runʼ - a story set in World War 2, about a family on the run.

• ʻA girl called Dogʼ - the strangest title on the list! It is about a girl who cannot speak and lives in a pet shop but goes on an adventure.

• ʻSky Hawkʼ - about a boy who helps save Osprey birds in Scotland.

Year 7 Reading

Groups

Stockton Book of

the Year

‘Film Club’ continues to attract students of all ages to watch a range of films; from old and new favourites, to ones that they may not usually experience. This month’s best film review was by Shaun Laing Year 10.

RatatouilleRatatouille is about a rat who has highly honed senses (mainly taste and smell) and has discovered the joys of food by using these senses. When Remy (Patton Oswalt) is lost from his family he ends up in Paris and attempts to find the

restaurant of his favourite chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett). When he arrives he comes across a cleaner who makes a soup wrong and their relationship begins. The film follows them during Linguini’s (Lou Romano) training to be a chef. Linguini’s tutor Colette (Janeane Garofalo) is shown as only looking out for “number one” but as the film progresses she becomes less cold. This film has many interesting curves but uses many clichés. The film is good but still left me feeling as if the story wasn’t amazing, however the narrative was portrayed as good as it can be. Shaun Laing

Plenary Leaders

The History Department at Northfield has recently launched plenary leader training with Y8 students. My classes have undergone a two lesson training programme in which they developed their confidence with a view to

them leading in the delivery of their own plenaries (recapping work covered at the end of lessons).

The training involved:• Looking at what qualities good leaders have.• Identifying examples of good leaders.• Identifying and modelling types of plenaries.• Getting students to understand the purpose and importance of plenaries.

Students have bought into the training very well and will keep a log book detailing the plenary lessons they have led.

Mr P. Richardson

HISTORY

Film Club meets in the Library every Wednesday from 3.30 – 4.30.Everyone welcome!

CHRISTIAN AID VISIT

The RE department have recently welcomed visitors from Christian Aid into lessons to teach our Year 8 students about the work that they do in countries across the world. Two students have shared their thoughts on the experience below.

RE

On the 26th of January 2012, Christian Aid came into our lesson to talk to us about the poverty and famine all over the world. First they showed us a video about the conditions that some of the people live in. It showed me the other side of life! Some of the towns donʼt even have drains - just wood over raw sewage.The lady that came in had been to India. She said that the smells of the food were divine but she was shocked at the conditions people there were living in.The man showed us another video about what was being done about it. They out a shower block in the bvillage. It cost three shillings, which is one penny in English money. The man also told us about Fair Trade. Cadburyʼs chocolate factory now use Fair Trade cocoa. That means that the person that grew it got the proper price for the cocoa.

" " Jak McKenzie

On the 26th January 2012, Christian Aid came into our lesson to talk to us about what they do and how they help people across the world.First they told us what they do. They help people in poverty and get them back on their feet. Second, they showed us a video which showed us what poverty is. This was extreme and I felt overwhelmed when I saw how people are coping.The lady had been to India to see what was happening over there and from what she said, it was devastating! The houses they had to live in were just like a little shelter and when it rained most of the water came in. Their space was compact and there was a family with a Grandad who had cancer, but they couldnʼt afford to take him to the hospital, so he couldnʼt get treatment.They then showed us another video which was about how many people are forced to walk miles to get water and that the water that they have to get is often dirty, so they become ill.Christian Aid told us lots of facts about poverty and how they help and I think they do an excellent job!

" " Danielle Welford

Dates for your diary

School production of ʻLittle Shop of Horrorsʼ

Year 11 reports

February Half Term

Staff CPD Day

Year 11 Parents Evening (Invite)

Year 9 Options Evening

Year 9 Parents Evening

Year 9 Parents Evening

Easter Break

7th – 10th February

Friday 10th February

Monday 13th February - Monday 20th February

Monday 20th February

Thursday, 23rd February

Thursday, 8th March

w/c 12th March

Thursday, 22nd March

Monday, 2nd April to Friday, 16th April

If you have any ideas for articles to be included in our Easter newsletter, please contact Mrs Poppleton as soon as possible.